News & Press

Sheana Firth, Owner of Breakaway Graphics, LLC, has been awarded a 2013 APEX Award of Excellence for outstanding Graphic Design. APEX Awards for Publication Excellence is an annual competition for publishers, editors, writers and designers who create print, Web, electronic and social media. Business, nonprofit, agency and freelance communicators can enter APEX to win awards for their best writing, publications, campaigns, programs, design and media. Communications Concepts, Inc. sponsors the APEX Awards, and advises professionals, who write, edit and manage business communications, on best strategies and practices.

APEX Awards are based on excellence in graphic design, editorial content and the ability to achieve overall communications excellence. Awards of Excellence recognize exceptional entries, one of which was the Custom Advertisement Designed by Breakaway Graphics, LLC for Conchy Joe’s Restaurant & Bar located in Jensen Beach, Florida. The Award winning ad appeared in the April 2013 edition of Stuart Magazine.

The mother-daughter publishing duo, Kerry & Sheana Firth of the InsideTrack Almanac, add three prestigious international awards for the Indian River County Come Discover Love Wedding Guide. The team was contracted by the Tourism Division of the Indian River County Chamber of Commerce to produce a promotional piece to be distributed at wedding shows. The 2013 Hermes Creative Awards (GOLD) and the 2013 Communicator Awards (two Awards of Distinction) recognize outstanding creative achievement by marketing and communication professionals with entries from around the globe. Kerry and Sheana are thrilled to add these acknowledgments to the GOLD Award already presented to them for the Come Discover Love Wedding Guide. The team is currently working on the 2013 Come Discover Love Wedding Guide with aspirations for another award-winning publication.

With over 6000 entries received from across the US and around the world, the Communicator Awards is the largest and most competitive awards program honoring the creative excellence for communications professionals. Please visitwww.communicatorawards.com to view the full winners list.

The Communicator Awards are judged and overseen by the International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA), a 600+ member organization of leading professionals from various disciplines of the visual arts dedicated to embracing progress and the evolving nature of traditional and interactive media. Current IAVA membership represents a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms including: AirType Studio, Condè Nast, Disney, Keller Crescent, Lockheed Martin, Monster.com, MTV, rabble+rouser, Time Inc., Tribal DDB, Yahoo!, and many others. See www.iavisarts.org for more information.

“We are both excited and amazed by the quality of work received for the 19th Annual Communicator Awards. This year’s class of entries is a true reflection of the progressive and innovative nature of marketing and communications,” noted Linda Day, executive director of the International Academy of the Visual Arts. She added, “On behalf of the entire Academy I want to applaud this year’s Communicator Awards entrants and winners for their dedication to perfecting their craft as they continue to push the envelope of creativity.”

Breakaway Graphics, LLC Takes Home TWO Gold in 2013 International Hermes Creative Awards • April 2013

Hermes Creative Awards is an international competition for creative professionals involved in the concept, writing and design of traditional materials and programs, and emerging technologies and is administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals. The international organization consists of several thousand marketing, communication, advertising, public relations, media production, web and free-lance professionals. The Association oversees awards and recognition programs, provides judges and sets standards for excellence.

The competition has grown to one of the largest of its kind in the world. A look at the winners shows a range in size from individual communicators to media conglomerates and Fortune 500 companies.The competition is so well thought of in the industry that national public relations organizations, local ad clubs, and local business communicator chapters are entrants.

A tremendous professional achievement, winning TWO Golds for their work on The Centerpiece Logo and the 2012 Come Discover Love Wedding Guide in this prestigious competition means the judges felt that Breakaway Graphics, LLC’s work exceeded their high standard of excellence and serves as a benchmark for the Industry.

Gold Winner-2012 MarCom Awards • November 6, 2012

Breakaway Graphics, LLC, who teamed up with the InsideTrack Almanac to create and publish the Come Discover Love Wedding Guide for the Indian River County Chamber of Commerce located in Vero Beach, FL, has been announced as a Gold winner in the 2012 MarCom International Awards Competition that recognizes outstanding creative achievement by marketing and communication professionals. There were over 6,000 entries from throughout the United States, Canada and several other countries in the 2012 competition. MarCom entries come from corporate marketing and communication departments, advertising agencies, PR firms, design shops, production companies and freelancers. The competition has grown to perhaps the largest of its kind in the world. A look at the winners shows a range in size from individual communicators to media conglomerates and Fortune 500 companies. The competition is so well respected in the industry that national public relations organizations, local ad clubs, and local business communicator chapters are entrants.

MarCom Awards is administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals. The international organization consists of several thousand creative professionals and oversees awards and recognition programs, provides judges and sets standards for excellence. Judges are industry professionals who look for companies and individual whose talent exceeds a high standard of excellence and whose work serves as a benchmark for the industry. Winners were selected from over 200 categories in seven forms of media and communication efforts, including Breakaway Graphics, LLC’s outstanding creative work artfully paired with InsideTrack Almanac’s publisher, Kerry Firth’s skillful writing to create a stunning publication worthy of this prestigious recognition. Winners can be found on the MarCom Awards website at www.marcomawards.com.

Breakaway Graphics, LLC is happy to add this accolade to their growing number of highly respected awards for design, including 3 Bronze Summit Creative Awards for Design, 1 Silver Summit Creative Award for Design, A Gold and Honorable Mention in the Hermes Creative Awards, and an APEX Award of Excellence for magazine production and design.

Breakaway Graphics, LLC is a Silver winner in the 2012 Summit Creative Award® competition for its creative work for Goat Hill Farm. The Summit Creative Award recognizes and celebrates the creative accomplishments of small and medium sized advertising agencies and other creative groups with annual billings under $30 million. Over the seventeen years, the competition has established itself as the premier arbiter of creative excellence for firms of this size and has become a coveted honor worth touting.

Entries in 23 major categories are judged against a stringent set of standards. During the blind judging events (entering company names withheld.) Judges search for innovative and creative concepts, strong executions and the ability to communicate and persuade.

“Winning a Summit Creative Award is a significant accomplishment in ones career. The combination of scrutinizing judges and tough judging criteria ensures that only deserving entries receive Summit recognition.” Said Jocelyn Luciano, Executive Director for the Summit International Awards. “What a year to see creativity bounce back from the doldrums, and with such strength. Watching the judges’ debate the details of inpidual entries in the run-off for the tops spots was inspiring.”

Featured on GraphicDesign.com

Many professional and freelance designers work from home: perhaps due to familial or personal restrictions, perhaps because the commute to the company office is too far, or perhaps that’s just the way they like it. Whatever the reason, once a designer finds his or herself in a situation where work is performed under the same roof as laundry, a few small actions can make all the difference in maintaining a healthy life-work balance and not getting caught doing homework.

A Dedicated Space

Remember when you were a student and you would sit down in your favorite spot to do homework? Maybe it was the kitchen table, maybe it was a little desk in your room; either way, you did your best studying when you were in ‘your spot’. This can be true for the home office too. It is preferable to have a dedicated room if you plan on working full time from home although this may not be an option for everyone.

At the very least, you should have a specific area to work and be devoted to only performing work in that area. What I mean is, don’t do your Skyping® with family or play games from your work area. Similarly, don’t take your laptop into another room to work. You wouldn’t eat in the bathroom or vise versa (think about it…..yuck!), think of your home office the same way. This little trick helps the human psyche to distinguish from work and play subconsciously.

The Switch to 9 to 5: If You’re Not a Student, Why are You Doing Homework?

I would be willing to bet that is the hardest adjustment to make since…read more here

Hermes Creative Awards is an international competition for creative professionals involved in the concept, writing and design of traditional materials and programs, and emerging technologies and is administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals. The international organization consists of several thousand marketing, communication, advertising, public relations, media production, web and free-lance professionals. The Association oversees awards and recognition programs, provides judges and sets standards for excellence.

The competition has grown to one of the largest of its kind in the world. A look at the winners shows a range in size from individual communicators to media conglomerates and Fortune 500 companies.The competition is so well thought of in the industry that national public relations organizations, local ad clubs, and local business communicator chapters are entrants.

A tremendous professional achievement, winning Gold for their work on Savvy Roads in this prestigious competition means the judges felt that Breakaway Graphics, LLC’s work exceeded their high standard of excellence and serves as a benchmark for the Industry.

Breakaway Graphics, LLC also received an Honorable Mention for their work with the InsideTrack Almanac.

Sheana & Kerry Firth Receive 2012 APEX Award of Excellence

Kerry Firth, Owner & Publisher, and Sheana Firth, Art Director, have been awarded a 2012 APEX Award of Excellence for the InsideTrack Almanac. APEX Awards for Publication Excellence is an annual competition for publishers, editors, writers and designers who create print, Web, electronic and social media. Business, nonprofit, agency and freelance communicators can enter APEX to win awards for their best writing, publications, campaigns, programs, design and media. Communications Concepts, Inc. sponsors the APEX Awards, and advises professionals, who write, edit and manage business communications, on best strategies and practices.

APEX Awards are based on excellence in graphic design, editorial content and the ability to achieve overall communications excellence. Awards of Excellence recognize exceptional entries, one of which was the Volume 17, Issue 1 of the Treasure Coast InsideTrack Almanac.

Featured in October 2011’s Photoshop User Magazine

We are super excited to announce our feature in Photoshop User Magazine! After contacting Photoshop User Magazine to put our hats in the ring as a featured designer for their column called “Design Makeover”, we received a phone call from Jake Widman requesting our help for an upcoming issue. That issue is out now and we are happy to share it with you!

The Magazine Introduction – by Jake Widman

Zoccoli’s, “The Italian Delicatessen,” has been owned by the same family since 1948. From the website, “In March of 1948, Robert Zoccoli Sr. and his wife, Augusta, both Italian immigrants, along with their daughter Nelli and her husband Lloyd Sherman, formed a partnership and bought a small grocery store. The Plaza Grocery, a Red & White Food Store, was located in downtown Santa Cruz where Zoccoli’s Deli resides now. It was a very persified operation that sold everything from household supplies to deli meats and cheeses, many of which we still carry today.” Today the store is still run by the third generation of the Zoccoli family. It’s been operating out of the same location since 1948 except for 18 months after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake caused extensive damage to downtown Santa Cruz, when the store had to operate out of a trailer while the structure underwent seismic retrofitting.

In the 1970s, the store started making sandwiches, which continues today. At lunchtime on the main street of downtown Santa Cruz, workers and tourists line up for house specialties like the Italian Club and the Santa Cruzer. While the sandwiches are fresh, the logo also dates from the 1970s–drawn by a family friend–and is looking a little stale.

Zoccoli’s is an integral part of Santa Cruz, and Marie Mediterranean is an part of Zoccoli’s. “We could never change our logo,” says Zoccoli. Nevertheless, she gave us permission to ask three designers to redo the deli’s logo for a new generation–the people who would order a hummus or chicken pesto sandwich as soon as they’d order classics like the meatball or antipasto creation. Zoccoli said any logo should convey the business’s virtues like “very involved in the community, love downtown Santa Cruz, customer service, quality at a good price.”

Each designer created a color one for use on the website and a black-and-white one for use on their catering and sandwich menus, which are simply photocopied onto 11-x-14-inch paper.

My Design Explanation

“My goal for the Zoccoli’s logo and menu cover was to stay true to the long-established identity of the restaurant. Although the ‘before’logo seemed amateurish to me, I didn’t want to change the shape of the mark since it has been used for decades. I wanted only to freshen it up while maintaining its grass-roots, small-town appeal.

Scalloping the edges of the original shape instantly gave it a vintage yet familiar tone and I sought a typeface that would embody the heritage of the restaurant and evoke an immediate sense of longevity. Phaeton, licensed through Veer, with it’s classic, solid presence proved to have just the right amount of hand-lettered flair and was easily tweaked to perfection. I felt the secondary font, from the IM FELLcollection, complemented the mood of the main font nicely and was obtained through the author’s website (www.iginomarini.com).

I decided to keep the general appearance of the Character the same but repositioned her to add a little interest. I eliminated the ‘extras’from the ‘before’ design which resulted in Miss. Mediterranean’s transformation from schoolmarm to killer-cook-suited-for-this-millennium.

With the logo finished, and armed with the knowledge that the menus are printed with margins, in black and white and are likely photocopied,I aimed to design a cover that could be reproduced in the same manner without losing depth in the design. Resisting the urge to go full-color, full bleed and require professional offset printing, I instead created a simple, classic, easily reproducible cover using art from Fotolia by Albachiaraa. An awning to match the building’s facade, repeating the scalloped corners on the border, a custom illustration of the kettle, and a commitment to the fonts, tied the logo and menu together.

Breakaway Graphics, LLC Wins Two International Awards • May, 2011

Middle Tennessee’s Breakaway Graphics, LLC is a double bronze winner in the 2011 Summit Creative Award® competition for its creative work for Caddell’s VMS and Savvy Roads. Their design and execution of a custom postcard for Caddell’s VMS, located in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, won in the Business-to-Business direct marketing category. The second win came in the logo and trademark category for the development of the logo for Savvy Roads located in Fort Pierce, Florida.

“I am overwhelmed with the excitement of receiving two awards this year in two very different categories. I am happy to have the opportunity share this achievement with the clients whose faith in my ability allowed me the liberty to create visually appealing, effective, and award-winning designs.” said Sheana Firth, the company’s owner and founder.

In its 17th year, The Summit Creative Award recognizes and celebrates the creative accomplishments of small and medium sized advertising agencies and other creative groups with annual billings under $30 million. Over the seventeen years, the competition has established itself as the premier arbiter of creative excellence for firms of this size and has become a coveted honor worth touting.

Entries in 23 major categories are judged against a stringent set of standards. During the blind judging events (entering company names withheld.) Judges search for innovative and creative concepts, strong executions and the ability to communicate and persuade.

“Winning a Summit Creative Award is a significant accomplishment in ones career. The combination of scrutinizing judges and tough judging criteria ensures that only deserving entries receive Summit recognition.” Said Jocelyn Luciano, Executive Director for the Summit International Awards. “What a year to see creativity bounce back from the doldrums, and with such strength. Watching the judges’ debate the details of inpidual entries in the run-off for the tops spots was inspiring.”

So it is not surprising to learn that Breakaway Graphics, LLC strives to offer each client the expertise, attention, respect and service one would expect to receive from a top-notch design company and is an Accredited member of the Better Business Bureau of Middle Tennessee, the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce and the AIGA, the professional association for design. They can be found on the web at www.BreakawayGraphics.net where one can view the winning designs as well as other samples of the designer’s work and learn more about the company that continues to be recognized as a leader in design.

This year’s creative competition included companies from the following twenty-two countries: Australia, Austria, Canada, China – Hong Kong, Denmark, India, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Oman, Pakistan, Republic of Korea, Spain, Thailand, The Netherlands, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United States and United Kingdom. Winners were selected in a wide-range of categories from print and broadcast to, emerging media and viral marketing by a panel of esteem judges from 11 countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, Denmark and Brazil.

Breakaway Graphics specializes in print design and production and logo development. With an extensive understanding of advertising markets, design techniques and effective color choices, they can increase the visibility and recognition of your brand to potential clients. Ensuring ethical and professional treatment of each client, Breakaway Graphics, LLC adheres strictly to the Standards of Professional Practices as outlined by the AIGA, the professional association for design. What sets Sheana Firth and Breakaway Graphics, LLC apart from other talented designers and design firms is the care and time she takes with each client. It is Sheana herself who each client works with directly, not an intern or employee, guaranteeing that every project receives the detailed, experienced eye of a seasoned design expert. Customer Service is a large part of why Breakaway Graphics, LLC has continued to be successful as they appreciate, value and respect each of their clients. “Without them”, Sheana says, “I wouldn’t have the sublime opportunity to do what I enjoy and love everyday.”

Sheana Firth of Breakaway Graphics is a bronze winner in the 2010 Summit Creative Award® competition for her creative work for The InsideTrack Almanac.

Celebrating its 16th year, the Summit Creative Award spotlights works created by small and mid-size marketing firms around the globe. Recognized for its prestige worldwide, the SCA has become a coveted honor to its award recipients. Entries in 22 creative categories are judged against a stringent set of standards. During the blind judging events, judges search for innovative and creative concepts, strong executions and the ability to communicate and persuade. Of the thousands of entries from 24 countries, Breakaway Graphic’s creative scored among the very best.

“I am honored to be an award recipient in this prestigious competition. The recognition from my peers and top producers in this industry makes it all the better. Being a Freelance Graphic Designer means taking risks…this one paid off!” – Sheana Firth • Owner, Breakaway Graphics

March 7, 2010 BBB Accredited Freelance Graphic Designer

I am pleased to announce that we have recently been Accredited by the Better Business Bureau. Please take a moment to view my portfolio and to see what some of my happy customers have to say about their experience with Breakaway Graphics. Also, feel free to click on the BBB link to the right to view my accreditation page with the Better Business Bureau. If you think I may be the right Graphic Designer for your company’s Graphic needs, contact me today for your free personalized quote.